xTCObscure French works seen again in exhibit opening at...

THIS WEEK

August 22, 1993|By John Dorsey

xTC

Obscure French works seen again in exhibit opening at the 0) (( Walters

In 1857, the renowned critic John Ruskin happened to see, in a London art gallery, several pictures of village life painted by Pierre-Edouard Frere, who had been working away quietly for a decade in a town called Ecouen, north of Paris. Ruskin liked Frere's pictures, and said so. Presto -- instant "school of (P Ecouen," with dozens of artists all diligently painting village scenes for an urban clientele nostalgic for a way of life they had never experienced and probably would have hated.

For a time these artists enjoyed great popularity; then they sank below the level of public consciousness. Who, today, has ever heard of Theophile-Emmanuel Duverger, Andre-Henri Dargelas or August-Frederic Albrecht Schenk? And which did they deserve, their brief fame or their enduring obscurity? You can decide for yourself when "Drawings of the Ecouen School" opens Tuesday and runs through Feb. 6 at the Walters Art Gallery, 600 N. Charles St. For more information, call (410) 547-9000. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the historic civil rights rally in Washington when Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, the Spirit of Malik Theater will present "The Award," a one-act play by local writer R. B. Jones, at 8 p.m. Friday, Sunday and Sept. 11 at Nirvana Cafe and Theater, 1727 N. Charles St.

A tribute to the memory of Baltimore activist Walter P. Carter, the play focuses on the local civil rights movement. In addition, on Friday night only, Nefertiti Allen's "The Conjure Woman Episode," a work about the resilience of women, will also be performed. Sunday's performance benefits Save the Children and Self X-press literary magazine; the Sept. 11 performance benefits the Sampson Green Scholarship Fund of Sojourner Douglass College. Tickets each night are $15. For more information, call (410) 383-0808.

@

J. Wynn Rousuck

Jewish Historical Society shows artwork by Jacob Glushakow

Jacob Glushakow was born at sea in 1914, to parents coming to America from Ukraine. The family settled in Baltimore, and Glushakow grew up in the then-thriving East Baltimore Jewish neighborhood of which a relic still exists in Lombard Street's "corned beef row" and the nearby Jewish Heritage Center. By and by, Glushakow grew up to be an artist, and for decades he recorded the markets, the synagogues, the houses, the street life of the area.

Curator Barry Kessler of the Jewish Historical Society has gathered about 80 of Glushakow's works in "An Eye for East Baltimore: Paintings and Drawings by Jacob Glushakow," which will be on view at the historical society, 15 Lloyd St., through Jan. 9. For more information, call (410) 732-6400.